NEW YEAR’S COCKTAIL FOR MEDIA REPRESENTATIVES TOOK PLACE IN THE NATIONAL THEATRE’S MUSEUM

When summing up the results in the previous 12 months, Mr. Dejan Savić, Acting General Manager of the National Theatre said, “This has been a year of records and a season during which we gave about 500 performances and, for the first time, we exceeded the number of 170,000 visitors”.
On the occasion, Mr. Savić also spoke about the incident of fire that happened on the Main Stage last December, and expressed his gratitude to media for “paying attention” intensively to the National Theatre at that time. As a result, Savić said that all the relevant authorities became engaged and the consequences of fire were repaired in a short time.  
When talking about the ongoing season, the 145th one that started on 1st October, Savić said that he is very content with everything done in the previous three months and he added that there have been as many as six premieres.
He reiterated that, according to the plan for 2014, there will be fourteen premieres in all three sectors of the National Theatre.
“We have a good cooperation with the Ministry of Culture; the Ministry treats the Theatre as an institution of culture of the first class. The funds given to us were received with gratitude; we are going to use them to achieve what we planned. Also, we expect to finalise the Managing Board membership in order to have it continue with its activities”, said Savić and reiterated that, according to the Decision of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, his appointment as the Acting General Manager of the National Theatre in Belgrade shall expire in October 2014. ”The Managing Board is important to us because it has a role in public procurement procedures, annual financial reports, approval of amended plan and programme of activities, as well as for many other reasons. In the upcoming period, we will have to be engaged more regarding the new Law on Budget, approved on 6th December, because the Law does not take into account specific circumstances regarding culture and thus it will jeopardize the work of not only the national institutions of culture, but also many others.  First of all, the freelance artists who will, as a result, be hardly engaged by institutions, in case they have a quota of ten percent when compared to the number of permanently engaged staff members,” explained Savić.
Savić added that he believes that after a joint action, which has already been announced, there would be changes regarding the Law in the sphere of culture, after all.
At the end of his address, Savić wished a happy and successful New Year to all journalists and reporters.
M.B.